Johnstone

JOHNSTONE, a police burgh of Renfrewshire, Scotland, on the Black Cart, n m. W. of
Glasgow by the Glasgow & Southwestern railway. Pop. (1901), 10,503. The leading industries include flax-spinning, cotton manufactures (with the introduction
of which in 1781 the prosperity of the town began), paper-making, shoe-lace making, iron and brass foundries and engineering works. There are also coal mines
and oil works in the vicinity. Elderslie, i m. E., is the reputed birthplace of Sir William Wallace, but it is doubtful if " Wallace's Yew," though of great
age, and " Wallace's Oak," a fine old tree that perished in a storm in 1836, and the small castellated building ( traditionally his house) which preceded the
present mansion in the west end of the village, existed in his day.